#ReadThis @AgathaChristie @HarperCollins @Morrow_PB #TheMovingFinger by #AgathaChristie #Third #3 #MissMarple #Mystery #ReadChristie2022
Ahhh summer! Page One:
"'Good air, quiet life, nothing to do- that's the prescription for you. That sister of yours will look after you. Eat, sleep and imitate the vegetable kingdom as far as possible.'"
Who doesn't need a bit of R and R especially if you live in the crazy world of Manhattan right now...and if you don't know what we are talking about perhaps adopt the Citizen App. We need Ray Kelly and team more than ever...how we wish we could push a button and change the laws of New York and the government officials! But we cannot, so change the subject to The Moving Finger. Even here there are perps with a grudge against humanity so perhaps the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And of course this is a Miss Marple trick and we learn we like her even more as she KNITS! (Page 215...Was she using Lion? We hope so.) Her acute grasp of human nature is timeless and constant and a total reassurance in an ever-changing world. Oh how we wish she lived in Manhattan.
A most curious title, The Moving Finger has its title explained on WIKI:
The book takes its name from quatrain 51 of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,Moves on: not all thy Piety nor WitShall lure it back to cancel half a Line,Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar's feast as related in the Book of Daniel, where the expression the writing on the wall originated.
The title shows in the story figuratively and literally. The anonymous letters point blame from one town resident to another.[3] The Scotland Yard agent determines the envelopes were all "typed by someone using one finger" to avoid a recognisable 'touch'.[6]
Megan Hunter was our favorite character and Agatha Christie has painted a wide variance in the cast of this book to entertain you gloriously! We particularly love Megan's unexpected charm and unique personality and intelligence. Also, how can you not love an underdog! Mr. Pye is also a ticket with his fabulous aesthetic commitment. Jerry the narrator is also fabulous and nice to hear from with his straightforward, intelligent perspective.
Even before there was an internet there were creepy people or a creepy person sending anonymous letters...and we would hate to see what this antagonist would be up to today online. Additionally we love how both this cast of characters and Christie herself are proponents of the COCKTAIL. (p. 71) And there is even a bit of romance mixed in with murder...We absolutely LOVED this mystery and it is a total must-read.
The Moving Finger is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know! A virtual trip to the countryside is just what you need this August.
Previously on Whom You Know, we have raved about Agatha:
ALL OF HERCULE POIROT:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Murder on the Links
Poirot Investigates
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Big Four
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Peril at End House
https://www.whomyouknow.com/2020/11/readthis.agathachristie.perilatendhouse.peachydeegan.harpercollins.williammorrow.html#.X7lGvGhKg2w
Lord Edgware Dies
Murder on the Orient Express
Three Act Tragedy
and we took a break from only him and did him with others in Midwinter Murder
and returned to only him with Death in the Clouds
The ABC Murders
Murder in Mesopotamia
Cards on the Table
Murder in the Mews
Dumb Witness
Death on the Nile
Appointment with Death
Hercule Poirot's Christmas
Sad Cypress
One Two Buckle My Shoe
Evil Under the Sun
Five Little Pigs
The Hollow
The Labors of Hercules
Taken at the Flood
The Under Dog and Other Stories
Mrs. McGinty's Dead
After the Funeral
Hickory Dickory Dock
Dead Man's Folly
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Clocks
Third Girl
Halloween Party
Elephants Can Remember
Curtain Poirot's Last Case
MISS MARPLE:
The Murder at the Vicarage:
The Body in the Library
About the Author
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only in the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She is the author of eighty crime novels and short-story collections, around thirty plays, two memoirs, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott.
She first tried her hand at detective fiction while working in a hospital dispensary during World War I, creating the now-legendary Hercule Prior with her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In 1930, Miss Jane Marple made her first full-length novel appearance in The Murder at the Vicarage, quickly becoming another beloved and enduring character to rival Poirot's popularity. Additional series characters include the husband-and wife crime-fighting team of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, private investigator Parker Pyne, and Scotland Yard detectives Superintendent Battle and Inspector Japp.
Many of Christie's novels and short stories were adapted into plays, films, and television series. The Mousetrap opened in 1952 and is the longest running play in history. Academy Award-nominated actor and director Kenneth Branagh helmed the acclaimed major motion picture Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and its sequel, Death on the Nile, starring in both films as the Belgian detective. On the small screen Poirot has been most memorably portrayed by David Suchet, and Miss Marple by Joan Hickson and subsequently Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie.
Christie was first married to Archibald Christie and then to archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, whom she accompanied on expeditions to countries that would also serve as the settings for many of her novels. In 1971 she achieved one of Britain's highest honors when she was made a Dame of the British Empire. She died in 1976 at the age of eighty-five. The one-hundred-year anniversary of Agatha Christie stories and the debut of Hercule Poirot was celebrated around the world in 2020. Whom You Know will never stop celebrating it!
